On a Pale Horse (Umamusume/Youjo Senki)

[Green Syn]

She's gonna be the LeBron of horse racing. Some Umamusume has already been born that's going to race her in the future.

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I think that while this is a great way to describe her, a baseball player is better. I don't know any good baseball players, but the combination of longevity and some grinded out wins fits better with baseball. LeBron is someone who redefined what the best in the sport truly is, and while I think Shirogane is good, I do not think that unless she truly grows into racing with all her heart she will be as defining as LeBron.

 

[Nitramy]

I think that while this is a great way to describe her, a baseball player is better. I don't know any good baseball players, but the combination of longevity and some grinded out wins fits better with baseball. LeBron is someone who redefined what the best in the sport truly is, and while I think Shirogane is good, I do not think that unless she truly grows into racing with all her heart she will be as defining as LeBron.

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Why do you have to compare Shirogane to LeBALCO?

That's a low blow, man. Shirogane doesn't deserve that.

 

[zecorezecron]

Why do you have to compare Shirogane to LeBALCO?

That's a low blow, man. Shirogane doesn't deserve that.

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Agreed. Shirogane knows what sportsmanship is and isnt a crybaby.

 

[MaHaL]

Stay Gold on the other hand is the rich guy shirking responsibility by gambling.

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We love our divorced father of 5 in this house and will accept no slander.

But yeah the Gold's make sense as an established racing family on par with Mejiro or Symboli.

Stego being interested in ShiroTanya earlier and knowing Stego does in fact remember being a horse opens up a lot of possible interactions that could be fun. And Stego running the Overseas Racing Commitee would be an interesting way to link her to more Polish stuff getting into the story.

 

[Argious]

I'm only saying this because I find it interesting, as a concept, a rivalry inspired by hatred rather than friendly competitiveness.

Shirogane is, in many ways, a subversion of the typical Uma Musume protagonist (Special Week, Kitasan Black, and Narita Top Road), that is, friendly, competitive, social girls, and above all, highly motivated by running and completely immersed in the Uma running culture.

Meanwhile, Shirogane is aloof, serious, and only interested in running for financial gain, not because she wants to make friends or has any particular dream.

That's why I thought a protagonist as "different" as Shirogane should have relationships that differ from the average. More specifically, of the type: If it weren't illegal and there were witnesses, they would both legitimately try to kill each other.

The Uma Musume franchise practically romanticizes the concept of rivalry. It idealizes it as someone to grow alongside and compete with to be better, obviously always with friendly and almost homoerotic undertones.

I imagine other characters reacting to Shirogane winning a rivalry and saying, "Oh great, Shiro's finally becoming more normal," assuming it's a typical Uma rivalry like Daiwa and Vodka, or McQueen and Teio, etc.

But no. Shirogane and Mary Sue are definitely NOT friends. They DON'T want to see each other grow. And above all, they DON'T want to lose and be "less" than the other.

Imagine Agnes Digital trying to ship them, thinking they have a rivalry with yuri subtext, just the kind she likes, but then being horrified to realize that their arguments and confrontations have no romantic tension, just pure, raw HATE for each other's guts.

Although, to be honest, I understand why many people dislike Mary Sue. It means she's very good at fulfilling her purpose because she's clearly made to be hated. In many fanfics she is treated more as an OP superpowerful obstacle to the plot than a true character in her own right, that is, an Anti-Tanya.

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The idea of Shirogane meeting Uma! Mary Souix at like, the Japan Cup or Champions cup and they both have a mutual Whitney Chewston moment, but both have mellowed out over their lives as Umamusume and decided on the path of "I wish this bitch would start something so I would have an excuse, but I'M not the one whose going to start an international incident over it" would be funny, especially if they run into each other at both and Mary tries to bait Shirogane into making the first mistake. Digitan sees from a distance and thinks it's finally Yuri time for Shirogane, only to get closer, hear them actually talk to each other and be the only other Umamusume who realizes that NO these two absolutely despise and each other and are only pretending to be Civil, much to her horror.

Omake material if nothing else.

I could see comparisons to Daichi Ruby's stoicism and calm behavior (also both smol)

Or the other way around since I think timeline wise Shirogane races first

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Same decade, but Daiichi Ruby was active several years earlier, 1991 vs 1998 for the Golden Generation, which Shirogane is a part of. Though now you have implanted the idea of Shirogane having her own Helios Equivalent in 1997 Double Crown Front-Runner Sunny Brian, who just REALLY wants to befriend her.

 

[Stracio]

They might think they want to see Shirogane find a rival. They will likely not have the same opinion after she does.

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The funny thing is that Shirogane has the potential to have a very long career given her durability, which means that she could end up as sort of a "Welcome to the League" figure for aspiring runners, because if they can beat or keep their cool while racing against her, they are likely going to have a successful career.

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It would be great if Shirogane eventually learns the concept of 'friendly rivalry' over the course of her potentially long career.

Ironically enough IRL Haru Urara was kind of abused, running over 100 races in 6 years.

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The thing about IRL Haru Urara was that she had to run those races or she would have been sent to the slaughterhouse. To put it another way, Racing really was a matter of life-or-death for the IRL Haru Urara.

Which makes it incredible that she never got injured during her career, which was intentional to some extent as her trainer, Dai Muneishi, even went on record to say when asked whether he could make Haru Urara win. According to a reddit post, his words at the time were, "I could, but I will not train my horse to win at the cost of injury."